RICHARD KING, HOST: Well, this morning looks like the best time to visit our area, and somebody who's doing that is the Federal Minister for Health, Mark Butler, who is on the line, good morning Minister.
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: Good morning Richard. You're right, it's a beautiful morning, so far.
KING: Yes, so far. I think it's going to get very wintery, I think they're forecasting snow above about 1,200 metres today. So I think a little bit of everything on the way. You're in Newcastle. First up, what’s the purpose of the visit, Minister?
BUTLER: I'll be doing a range of things over the course of the day, engaging with doctors, aged care facilities, and a range of other providers of important services in the region. But this morning, I'll be announcing an additional Medicare Urgent Care Clinic for the region that will be based in the Newcastle-Lake Macquarie area. These Medicare Urgent Care Clinics have provided an extraordinary level of service already. We only opened 58 of them last year, there's one in Cessnock, there's one in Lake Haven, there are a couple down in the Central Coast. And what they do is give people seven day access when they need urgent care, but don’t necessarily need to go to a fully equipped hospital emergency department. It’s fully bulk billed, it’s got very highly qualified medical and nursing staff there, often they’ve got experience having worked in emergency departments. And it's really taking pressure off local hospitals. So the announcement this morning is, I think, a really great thing for the Newcastle-Lake Macquarie area, and it will take pressure off the John Hunter Hospital emergency department, I’m confident.
KING: Okay, Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, but this is different to the GP Access After Hours Program which of course your Government reinstituted funding for. What's the difference between the GP Access After Hours and these Urgent Care Clinics, Minister?
BUTLER: You're right, the GP Access Program is - I've said on a number of occasions before – probably the best after hours program I’ve seen anywhere in the country. So we were really pleased to be able to promise at the last election that we'd refund that. I know that the clinic at the Calvary Mater Hospital was able to reopen last year, and the other clinics in the region were able to expand their hours as well. So that is something that allows people in the region to get access to a GP after hours, if they can't get into their usual GP. The Medicare Urgent Care Clinics are probably a slightly different offering, and it's really there for the sorts of things that you know that happen, your kid falls off a skateboard, your kid gets injured on the footy field on a Saturday afternoon. I mean, we've only been running them for less than 12 months, we've already seen, you know, not far off half a million patients through these clinics around the country. Interestingly, Richard, about 1 in 3 of those patients are under the age of 15. So they're kids who've injured themselves or have some sort of illness that obviously the parents are desperately worried about. They can't get into their GP immediately, and they equally don't want to go to a hospital emergency department and potentially wait hours upon hours in that ED room. They're getting really high quality care at these Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, and importantly, it's completely free of charge, fully bulk billed.
KING: 13 minutes to 8am. My guest, Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler, who is in Newcastle this morning. I referenced yesterday and again this morning an article in the Sydney Morning Herald written by Carrie Fellner, who used to work in our newsroom and has been investigating PFOA, PFAS forever chemicals, which are now reported to be in drinking water literally all over Australia. Carrie referenced Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra, Victoria, Queensland, Rottnest and Norfolk Islands. And experts say the widespread testing of Australia's drinking water must be an urgent priority. And Doctor Mariann Lloyd-Smith, a toxicologist, was talking to everybody yesterday, but she said that, it's a national disgrace that PFOA is now permitted in Australia's tap water at 140 times the maximum level for the US, that they will allow. People suggesting that your Government should be providing water filters for everybody, should we be concerned?
BUTLER: This was a very important story, Richard, a very important addition to the public debate that's happened over the last 24 hours. I mean, the Commonwealth has responsibility for setting safe drinking guidelines, that's done through the National Health and Medical Research Council. They have a review underway, that's been underway for a little while and was scheduled to report next year. So a review of the current guidelines that Australia has, having a look at what's happening across the world. I mean, there's been a lot of focus on what the Americans have done to their guidelines, and that's part of the work that the NHMRC is doing. But I think as a result of the story yesterday and really what it showed about what was happening across the world, I've asked for an urgent report from our Chief Medical Officer and from the NHMRC about where things are at in Australia and whether we should be accelerating that review. I mean, you're right to say that the Americans have changed their guidelines about the presence of these so-called forever chemicals - PFAS, PFOA - don't ask me to say what those letters stand for, it’s a very long name.
KING: Ha! Yeah, no.
BUTLER: They've often been associated with stories around airports and I know in the Newcastle Hunter region that's been a story for a long period of time. To be clear, these chemicals are usually seen in several parts - not per million or billion, but per trillion - so they're very, very small concentrations in drinking water. But I think given what's happened internationally, it's proper that I ask those health authorities at the Commonwealth level to accelerate their review, to see whether there is merit in changing the Australian guidelines. In the meantime, the states that have responsibility for testing the water are I think have been out and have given people some reassurance that we're still confident that drinking water in Australia is safe. But it is important we make sure that our guidelines are up to date and I’ve asked for an urgent report about making sure we do that.
KING: Right. A new advertising campaign started this week, and also quit support services recently announced by your government to get Australians to ditch vaping and smoking. I noticed there was another discovery of illegal tobacco only a matter of days ago, and this rise in black market trade for these products since the Government's crackdown. But people are arguing it's a bit like, you know, “shut the gate, the horses bolted”. It's after the event, it caught everybody by surprise there the popularity of these vaping products, Minister.
BUTLER: Completely did. The best time to have done this, Richard, would have been five years ago, but the second-best time is now. You're right, I mean, many of your listeners are parents and people involved in school communities and will be really angry about what's happened because this is now the number one behavioural issue in schools. Parents are dealing with kids as young as 12 who are addicted to nicotine in a very serious way. I mean, these devices contain frightening levels of nicotine. It's not like back when your kids might have had a couple of cigarettes on the school oval. The levels of nicotine that these kids are ingesting is truly frightening. So we've, first of all, put in a regulation to crack down on the imports of these things at the border. That took effect on the 1st of January and already we’ve seized almost 2 million of these disposable vapes. They’re brightly coloured, they’ve got cartoon characters on them, they’re bubble gum flavoured. These are so obviously targeted at children, they’re not therapeutic devices designed to help older adults kick the habit of smoking which was what we were told they were all about by the tobacco industry. They are an insidious device designed to recruit a new generation to nicotine addiction, and the tragedy is they’re working. The number of kids at high schools vaping is frightening, it's starting to permeate our primary schools, schools are having to put in place vape detectors in their school toilets, teachers are being rostered to stand in school toilets during lunch time to crack down on vaping. This is a really serious menace that I'm determined to stamp out.
KING: Peter Dutton over the weekend said that if his Government is elected, they'll walk away from the 2030 emissions target that your Government has committed to 43%. I know it's not under your remit, or the hat that you're wearing at the moment, but you are a former Shadow Climate Change Minister. Do you think this 43% reductions target by 2030 is achievable?
BUTLER: The latest projections that we got from the official agency that was back in December, they indicated we're on track to achieve that target and that's before we add further policy to help us get to that area. So we’re very confident we’re going to meet that target. The important thing is: having that target set in legislation has unleashed a whole lot of investment from businesses. I mean, they'd been, before the election, crying out for investor certainty. What they were saying is that they had no sort of guidelines about where to invest their money. Across the world you're seeing huge amounts of money invested in clean energy and the manufacturing and transport solutions that sit behind that. And what Peter Dutton did over the weekend, essentially was, put a really big question mark over that investor certainty. So these targets are not just important for grappling with climate change - and that is important, obviously - they're also important for the future of our economy, so jobs, economic prosperity into the future. And I think what he did over the weekend was grossly irresponsible.
KING: Finally, I mentioned earlier this morning that it was on this day, the 12th of June, back in 1956, that a free mass vaccination program with the Salk polio vaccine commenced. Well, I don't remember 1956, but I remember having the polio vaccine. I mean, we're being bombarded at the moment, particularly some sectors of the community, that we've got to have shingles vaccines, flu vaccines, can we expect to have COVID vaccines forever and a day now?
BUTLER: I mean, flu vaccines have been around for a very long time, because the flu just keeps coming back on a seasonal basis. I don't think anyone really knows what's going to happen with COVID in the medium to long term. But there is the prospect that it will be with us for a long period of time as the flu virus has been. I mean, I am worried about where vaccination is trending in our country. All of my colleagues I talk to across the globe are worried about where vaccination rates are trending in their countries as well. Most importantly, we're seeing childhood vaccination rates drop: measles and all of the other diseases that we’ve been very successful, as a country, at largely stamping out for our children are at threat of coming back, because there’s been such a push back on social media against vaccination that came out of the pandemic. So, we’re very, very determined to remind parents of the importance of getting their little ones, so under five-year-olds, vaccinated against all of those diseases that were common back in the 40s and the 50s and 60s, but we've been very successful in stamping out. A lot of the public health officials are very worried about something like measles coming back, because that is a killer, that's a real killer of young people. So, yes, there's been a lot of debate about vaccination because of the pandemic. But, you know, we've got to get back to remembering the enormous benefit that vaccination programs, in the post-war period have given, most importantly to our kids.
KING: Yes, yeah, look, I appreciate your time this morning. On a lighter note, and to finish up I know you're a Port Adelaide fan, I think you're into the top four now and you've got the GWS Giants on Sunday. Happy about the performance of Port Adelaide so far in the AFL season Minister?
BUTLER: Very, very happy. It's a great young team, we've got a terrific list, we're hanging on to the top four by our fingernails. But we had a good week off, over the weekend, because we’d had some injuries. So hopefully the boys are well rested and looking forward to the contest over the weekend with GWS.
KING: Appreciate your time this morning. Have a good day here in Newcastle, Minister.
BUTLER: Thanks, Richard.
KING: Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler on a Wednesday morning.
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